Field
Example embodiments relate to a steam separation system and/or a nuclear boiling water reactor (BWR) including the same.
Description of Related Art
A nuclear BWR generates steam by utilizing heat generated from a core and rotates a turbine and a power generator by means of the steam. In a nuclear pressurized water reactor, cooling water separately flows into a primary cooling system circulating through the nuclear reactor, and a secondary cooling system serves as a steam generator. In the primary cooling system, high-temperature water is generated by the heat from the nuclear reactor core. In the secondary cooling system, water in the secondary cooling system is boiled in a heat exchanger in the steam generator to become steam, which rotates a turbine or a power generator.
Regardless of the reactor type, moisture must be removed from the steam supplied to the turbine. To this end, a typical reactor is provided with a plurality of steam separators, dryers and the like so as to remove water from a two-phase flow of steam and water generated in the nuclear reactor or the steam generator.
If the two-phase flow stream (FS) velocity is high and/or steam separator inlet moisture content is high, the number of the minute droplets that are carried by the steam increases, which may result in an increase in moisture carry-over. The increase in moisture carry-over increases the radioactivity levels in the plant and adversely affects outage performance. If the moisture carry-over levels become undesirably high, certain components of the main steam line and turbine can be adversely impacted as a result of enhanced degradation from such mechanisms as flow accelerated corrosion leading to higher maintenance costs.